2005 earthquake: Balakot residents demand completion of reconstruction works

Lament apathy of provincial and federal government towards quake survivors

BALAKOT: It was a poignant and sombre moment as hundreds of residents of Balakot gathered on Saturday morning, mourning and remembering their dear and loved ones on the 11th anniversary of one of the deadliest earthquakes that struck the region on the morning of October 8, 2005.

Silence fell across the entire valley for two and a half minutes at 8:52 am, the hour the fateful earthquake struk, only to be broken by the chimes of sirens.

Businesses remained shut for half a day in the district on Saturday following a call from the local business association, Anjuman Tajiran Balakot.

As has become a tradition now, the main function to observe the anniversary was held at the site of a mass grave of 84 students at the Government High School for Boys Garlat. Parents of the victims and students at the school along with the tehsil nazim, district and tehsil councilors, nazims and councilors of different village councils and local leaders of different political parties attended the programme.

However, in yet another tradition, this year too no major government official or lawmakers from the district turned up to attend the memorial event.

Tehsil Nazim Haji Rustum Khan placed floral wreaths at the mass graves of young victims. Special prayers were also offered in the valley during the morning and zohar prayers in Balakot’s mosques.

Later, participants of the event took out a rally at the end of the programme, marching through the reconstructed city, chanting slogans against the federal and provincial governments for not completing reconstruction work despite the passage of 11 years.

The speakers were concerned about the inordinate delay in completing resettlement work in New Balakot City, due to which over 5,400 families are still languishing in camps and make-shift houses.

Mian Ashraf, a member of the action committee of earthquake affected communities accused the federal and provincial governments losing interest in resolving the problems of quake victims in Balakot.

“If they cannot resettle the 5,400 families in the new city with civic amenities, they [government officials] must resign,” he said, before holding elected representatives from Mansehra responsible for the plight of affected communities.

Tehsil Nazim Haji Rustum Khan and Mian Altaf in their speeches said that the victims of earthquake in AJK have been rehabilitated but the affectees from Balakot, who suffered far more devastation, were still waiting to be resettled.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2016.